The Union Cabi­net on Wed­nes­day ap­proved jail term of up to two years for dis­crim­i­nat­ing against HIV-pos­i­tive peo­ple, mak­ing sweep­ing changes to a pro­posed law that aims to safe­guard an es­ti­mated 21 lakh pop­u­la­tion liv­ing with the health con­di­tion.

Be­sides jail term, vi­o­la­tors could also be fined up to Rs1 lakh un­der amend­ments to the HIV and AIDS (Preven­tion and Con­trol) Bill 2014, health min­is­ter JP Nadda said. The changes will pro­tect HIV-pos­i­tive peo­ple from dis­crim­i­na­tion at work­place and ed­u­ca­tional in­sti­tu­tions, Nada said, adding that in­sur­ance com­pa­nies can­not deny them pro­tec­tion ow­ing to their health con­di­tion.

A 75-year-old re­tired high court lawyer was cheated by online scam­sters into be­liev­ing he had won Rs4.05 crore from ‘Mukesh Am­bani Foun­da­tion’, a fic­ti­tious en­tity, and per­suaded to hand over Rs18.36 lakh as ‘pro­cess­ing fees’ to claim his prize. The po­lice said in Novem­ber 2015, Jacob An­der­son, one of the al­leged con men, sent the com­plainant an email say­ing the foun­da­tion was “dis­tribut­ing un­claimed Bri­tish money” and that he had won Rs4.05 crore.

After­makinganini­tial­pay­ment of Rs9,000, the lawyer went to on pay­thethievesanes­ti­mat­e­dRs18.36 lakh in more than 40 in­stall­ments. He may have lost even more if his wife hadn’t heard him dis­cussing the mat­ter with a friend and in­formed their son and daugh­ter, who told him he had been cheated and lodged a com­plaint.

Is Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirit So­maiya a loose can­non or a part of the party’s cal­i­brated strat­egy for the up­com­ing Mum­bai civic polls?

So­mi­aya on Wed­nes­day set the ball rolling for an­other heated spat be­tween al­lies BJP and Shiv Sena when he said his party would con­test all 227 wards in Mum­bai and any al­liance with the Sena had been ruled out by the top brass. So­maiya said it was time to end the mafia raj con­trol­ling the civic body.

The party’s top lead­ers quickly dis­tanced them­selves from the com­ments, say­ing no such de­ci­sion had been taken. But the clar­i­fi­ca­tion seemed too mel­low.

“We are con­test­ing all 227 wards in the BMC polls. There was never any ques­tion of hav­ing an al­liance with the Shiv Sena. It has been proven the Mum­bai civic body is rid­den with scams. It is time to end this mafia raj,” So­mi­aya said, while tak­ing a jibe at the Sena that has been con­trol­ling the civic body for two decades. “In the state and the Cen­tre, where we have our govern­ment, cor­rup­tion has been kept un­der check. Con­test­ing the civic polls solo will not have any reper­cus­sions on hav­ing the Sena as an ally at the Cen­tre or the state,” he said.